8: Kendra Bulgrin- life as an artist, gallery owner and mom of children with special needs

Kendra in an artist and gallery owner from Algoma, Wisconsin. She holds an MFA from Memphis College of Art and has shown her paintings in many places both in the US and beyond including the Brooks Museum of Art and Beijing Normal University. Kendra’s paintings and work explore the constructs surrounding identity, examined specifically through the lens of growing up as an adopted child. She questions how identity is constructed through images, place, memory, decoy, and the miniature.

Kendra and her husband Jimmy founded the James May Gallery in 2015. In this episode we discuss Kendra’s role as gallery director, the system they have built for sustaining a gallery and her studio practice all while living in the same building, and what it’s like to create an arts culture in a small town. Kendra also graciously shares about journey mothering her sons, both of whom have special needs.

Kendra at her gallery + studio, James May GalleryThis is All We Ever Know, oil on panel, 8”x10” 2018Work in progress from Kendra’s studioSwan Rainbow, oil on panel, 2019Kendra in her studio Kendra’s sons painting in their kitchenArctic Dreams With Sheep, Oil on panel, 8” x 10” 2018